Home Video Hovel- The Royal Tenenbaums, by David Bax

When The Royal Tenenbaums was released in 2001, I knew Wes Anderson from Rushmore, a film I didn’t like. I hadn’t yet seen Bottle Rocket – mostly because I didn’t like Rushmore – so I wasn’t anticipating this new effort with the excitement of many of my cineaste friends. When I finally got around to seeing it, I found it a slight improvement over the previous film but Anderson’s suffocating fastidiousness continued to irk me. More than a decade later, the release of the film on Criterion Blu-ray has given me a chance to revisit it and see if my impressions have changed.

In case you don’t know, The Royal Tenenbaums is the story of a New York family whose three children were prodigies, one of them literary (Margot, played by Gwyneth Paltrow), one of them financial (Chas, played by Ben Stiller) and one of them athletic (Richie, played by Luke Wilson). Twenty or so years after their major successes, they have returned to spend some time in the house where they grew up, alongside their about-to-remarry mother, Etheline (Anjelica Huston at her best). This impromptu reunion and the pending marriage converge to bring the children’s father, Royal (Gene Hackman, also at his best) back into the picture, despite varying degrees of welcoming from his family. Danny Glover plays Etheline’s fiancé, Bill Murray plays Margot’s husband (a noted psychologist) and Owen Wilson plays the childhood neighbor.

Immediately, it became clear to me that, all else aside, this film was far funnier than I remembered. Royal is likely the most comedic character Hackman has ever played (or at least since Young Frankenstein). His implications that his children were the cause of his divorce; his observation that while romance between siblings – even when one is adopted – is frowned upon, “what isn’t, these days?”; these perfectly delivered laugh lines are never telegraphed or overemphasized. Yet, despite all the care that went into crafting this funny and clever dialogue, there is nothing more hilarious in any of Anderson’s films than Danny Glover falling in a ditch.

Hackman, Glover and Huston are both the funniest and the best characters in the piece. Therein lies one of the film’s persistent problems. Younger actors like Paltrow and Stiller or those who came up on the Anderson roster like the Wilsons lack the presence or power to overcome the often fascist direction. It’s only the more experienced players who rise above the minutiae and create realistic people. Murray’s character, in case you’re wondering, is too minor to count here but he does have one of the funniest moments when he is asked whether a boy he’s been studying is able to tell time. “Oh my, no,” he laughs.

Anderson’s (sometimes regrettable) attention to detail is, however, well-served by the Blu-ray presentation. The crispness of the colors and the texture of the clothing are transfixing in their ostentatiousness here. Meanwhile, the director’s sometimes regrettable over-reliance on pop songs is more forgivable when it sounds this good (and, admittedly, Anderson’s musical taste is admirable).

The copious but rather dry supplementary features are carried over from the existing DVD release.

After a decade of Wes Anderson films, some of them worse (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) and some of them better (Fantastic Mr. Fox), The Royal Tenenbaums definitely proved a worthwhile revisit. Anderson’s distracting micro-managing continues to grate but the experience of watching was far more pleasant and speedy than I remembered it. If you’re already a fan of the film, you know what to do. If you’re not, give it another chance. You may hate it slightly less.